I Run These Towns

It was the spring of 1996, and my mom and I were at the mall shopping for my senior prom dress. I had decided I was only going to eat 500 calories a day over the weekend. It was track season, so I couldn't starve myself on practice and meet days, but in my mind it seemed perfectly logical to basically starve my healthy, 17-year-old body on less physical days. I was in the fitting room trying on dresses, and I heard the sales person say to my mom, "Your daughter is so tiny!" I was light headed and nauseous from not eating, but that overheard compliment made me feel like it was all worth it.  Senior Prom 1996 I've struggled with my body image since I was a pre-teen, and in the 30+ years that have passed it's still something with which I struggle daily. I spent years punishing my body so I wouldn't gain weight: eating very few calories and working out for hours, purging, taking laxatives, only drinking alcohol until I threw up so I wouldn't gain weight. It...

A few weeks ago it started raining really hard while I was walking the dog. We were about three blocks from home and ran pretty hard the rest of the way. I finished and was exhausted. Running three blocks made me exhausted. It's not okay. I had clawed my way back into good running shape last year after my shoulder surgery, and since November I have been struggling again. I miss running. Running does not miss me. A lot of people probably love running races in the summer, but my favorite 5k races all come in November and December: the Silver Bells 5k (the day after our holiday parade always on the Saturday before Thanksgiving), the Turkey Trot (on Thanksgiving) and the Scrooge Scramble (the first weekend in December). I was registered for all three last fall ready to capitalize on my relatively quick time in September's Capital City River Run 5k. In that race I felt amazing and surprisingly won my age group with a time of 27:48 (a long way from my PR but pretty solid for me the l...